It don’t matter who’s on country radio, Chris Stapleton is still the current king of country music when it comes to recognition and album sales. A solid 16 months since he shocked the world at the 2015 CMA Awards, and he is still the perennial chart topper on the country albums charts with Traveller most every week, and there is no signs of it slowing down soon. Nonetheless, he’s already prepping a new album. Though no title, track list, or cover art has been revealed just yet, it has been confirmed that the new Stapleton album will be delivered on May 5th.

May 5th is also when the 2nd leg of a huge nationwide tour will commence, with new dates just announced. Heretofore, Chris Stapleton’s live dates have been in bouts and spurts, but in 2017 he will be touring the country extensively. Even more exciting is who he’s bringing out on tour with him, following the now fashionable model of not going for the tier two mainstream country talent, but traditional and independent up and comers.

Lindi Ortega, Brent Cobb, Anderson East, Margo Price, Brothers Osborne, Maren Morris, and Lucie Silvas all support, along with some shows with Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. You can see the full dates below.

I think it’s mostly because the Texas/Red Dirt scene started playing his music a while before he hit it big on the CMAs. The same is true for fellow Kentucky acts like Sturgill Simpson and Chris Knight. They also fairly regularly play bands from outside the strict geographic area like American Aquarium who started in North Carolina.

Agreed. Can you imagine going from Stapleton to Luke Bryan, FGL, or Aldean (his semi-decent “Any Ol’ Barstool” not withstanding)? Stapleton’s sound falls much more in line with bands like Turnpike Troubadors, Wade Bowen, Randy Rogers, etc.

I cannot imagine going from Stapleton to Luke Bryan, Keith Urban and Jake Owen (never heard of him to be fair), thus I won’t be at my local “country” music festival where Stapleton headlines with said others.

I’m a bad person, but sort of amused that country awards show critics are going to have to choose between Miranda and Chris next year. They love them both so much, I’m a little worried their heads will explode.

Love him or hate him, he has shown a real effort to include female artists on his tours. Jamey Johnson is one of the few others I can also say that about. As much as some of us bash the mainstream for its treatment of female artists, some of the anti- mainstream clique is just as lacking in this regard.

1. My Whiskey Can Beat Up Your Whiskey
2. Never Met A Whiskey I Didn’t Write A Song About
3. Even If The Song’s Not About Whiskey, I’ll Find A Way To Squeeze The Word In At Least Once
4. Whiskey, Whiskey Whiskey
5. Whiskey (Slight Return)
6. Whisk Me Off For A Whiskey
7. My Woman Left Me For A Craft Beer Drinker
8. Dried Whiskey In My Beard
9. Hmmm, What Shall I Have To Drink Tonight
10. Cupcakes and Sunflowers (just kidding) WHISKEY!!!

And as an added bonus, every song will feature that one Dave Cobb guitar riff that he plays on every song of every album of every artist he produces.

…despite that though, for some reason…still looking forward to it. Ha!

Target exclusive bonus track: “I Might Be an Asshole, But I Still Drink Whiskey” (featuring David Allan Coe).

******
Your original track listing was very funny to me, and it seems I’m not the only one. All joking aside, I’m stoked for this new album. Stapleton’s the one of the two country music “saviors” I can whole-heartedly get behind.

I was going to make a joke that he will also be covering Gary Allan’s “Drinkin’ Dark Whiskey” but then I thought.. “I wonder whether Stapleton wrote that???” and I checked it out on the wikipedia page.. and yup.. Stapleton wrote it.. ha !

I just heard Dierks Bentley’s song BLACK on our local radio station for the first time . That thing should come with a ” Stupid ” warning .Surely we must be scraping the Bro bin’s bottom with this one cuz it actually rivals Sam Hunt in the ” No -idea- what-to- write -about-or-how-to-do-it ” department . The lyric isn’t even written in sentences ….and it took THREE writers to miss that fact. I don’t know what Kool -Aid Music Row has Bentley drinking but I’m getting down on my knees before bedtime tonight to thank the Big Guy up above for the other ‘Big Guy’ up above -Chris Stapleton .

Wow, I can’t believe he’s coming to Hershey, and with Margo Price and Brent Cobb, no less. We love us some terrible radio country ’round here (and the Hershey venues love booking it for us), so this is mighty refreshing.

Completely unrelated but Trigger have you noticed that Stapleton’s version of Tennessee Whiskey is almost the exact same song as I’d Rather Go Blind by Etta James? I noticed it for the first time recently and was amazed haha!

I figure fall dates will be announced at some later point, since this tour just goes through August. The Texas dates could have some very cool openers, if the last couple of years are any indication. Going by memory, I think Wade Bowen, Quaker City Night Hawks, Whiskey Myers, and Jason Eady, each made an appearance or more on a Stapleton bill.

I’m excited for this. But fear a sophomore slump. Was Traveller so good because it was the result of 20 years of songwriting? How do you even follow up such a success? ‘Broken Halos’ was kind of a disappointment for me. No doubt his talent can overwhelm his shortcomings; no matter what May will be interesting.

Idk what people are hearing but I’ve heard Stapleton called “Traditional Country” and “Southern Rock” when I hear his music I hear blue eyed soul/R&B a newer day Ronnie Milsap. Maybe there’s something wrong with my hearing or I haven’t listened to enough of his music.

Or maybe categorizing some of these guys, or at least some of their work, is a fool’s errand.

As far as I’m concerned if he’s going to electrify his Steeldrivers material when he plays it in concert, he should just leave it be. Their first album is one of my all-time favorites and changing those songs to essentially Country Rock/Southern Rock songs detracts from them.

No. In fact I’ve been working on an article over the past few days about how Mercury is already bungling this Chris Stapleton release since we don’t even have a title for it yet, let alone a lead single which usually precedes a mainstream album by months. But I have a sense that we’re going to hear or see something tied to Stapleton’s performance on the ACM Awards on Sunday. He’s not going to come out and perform one of his old songs, at least I don’t think it’s likely with his new record so close. So I’m interested to see what the next few days have it store. If we still hear nothing by Monday, and Chris performs “Parachute” on Sunday, then it’s time for alarm bells.